A man’s best friend and a common companion for many families and households, is the energetic and lovable dog. While you may think you know your dog pretty well, you’d be surprised to find out there are many little known facts about dogs that may explain part of their behaviour, habits or appearance.

Want to know more? Here are 10 little known facts about dogs:

Dogs have been around for over 40,000 years

Your favourite pooch has had a long history, with archaeological evidence suggesting that dogs might have come from the wolf family up to 40,000 years ago. This is most noticeable for specific dog breeds like the German Shepherd who still seem to have a noticeable wolf like appearance.

The Chow Chow has a black tongue

Not all dogs have pink tongues.

Nearly all but two breeds of dogs have pink tongues. The Chow Chow and the Shar-Pei are exceptions as they both have black tongues. How cool is that?

There are more than 150 dog breeds, divided into 8 classes.

Determining dog types isn’t as simple as you thought! While we commonly distinguish dogs by their size, general appearance or hair length, it seems there is a lot more to it than that. There are approximately over 150 dog breeds, all with distinct physical, behavioral and mental characteristics.

Dogs can hear amazingly well.

All dogs have amazing hearing that allows them to locate the source of a sound in 6/100ths of a second. That means they can tell instantly when you are opening their dog food (or any other kind of food!) and will come chasing in no time!

Curled up sleeping dog

Dogs curl up to protect themselves (not to just look cute).

We love the look of our favourite pooch curled in a ball on the bed, couch or pretty much anywhere else, however it isn’t just to look cute! Dogs curl up as a natural instinct to keep themselves warm and to protect their vital organs when they sleep.

Dalmatian puppies are actually born completely white!

They certainly didn’t teach us this one in Disney’s 101 Dalmatians! The gorgeous Dalmatian puppies are born completely white and they develop their black spots over time.

Puppies can’t hold on over night.

No matter how hard you try, you cannot teach your brand new puppy to hold off from going to the toliet throughout the night, never fear it’s not your fault! Puppies actually have an inability to hold on until they are about four months old. Although this may cause a little stress and havoc during the beginning, it is a lot less time than it takes to toilet train a newborn human baby!

They can smell a lot better than you think.

We know our dogs love to sniff pretty much anything, especially when you take them somewhere new, but did you know that their sense of smell can be between 1,000 - 100,000 times stronger than the average human? That means there’s no fooling them when you have their bone or are hiding food, chances are they are smell it from a mile away!

The Norwegian Lundehund is the only breed that has six toes on each feet.

The small breed is different from its furry friends as it has not five but six toes on each foot. How cute is that?

Dogs have an amazing internal clock.

If you keep to a fairly regular schedule, dogs learn to know exactly when it’s walk time, eat and sleep time and when you’re due to get back from work.

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